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Astronomy

Cosmic fog and smog

Nature volume 517, pages 444–445 (2015)Cite this article

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It emerges that most of the elements heavier than helium are not found in galaxies, where they can be mixed into future stars and planets. Instead, these elements largely reside far from galaxies in ionized gas and dust particles.

All of the elements on which life is based (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron and so on) are formed in stars and in the explosive stellar deaths known as supernovae. Therefore, it seems reasonable to expect that they will be found where the stars and supernovae are located — in galaxies. However, studies by Shull et al.1 and Peek et al.2 have now revealed that the vast majority of these 'metals', as astronomers call all elements not produced in the Big Bang, reside far from the galaxies in which they were born, in the form of both ionized gas and complex molecules.

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Figure 1: Observing the diffuse gas outside galaxies.

References

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  1. Molly S. Peeples is at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.,

    Molly S. Peeples

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  1. Molly S. Peeples
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Correspondence to Molly S. Peeples.

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Peeples, M. Cosmic fog and smog. Nature 517, 444–445 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/517444a

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